


Interrogation By Any Other Name

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, White Collar (TV 2009)
Genre: Banter, Childhood Friends, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Interrogation, Pool & Billiards, Post-Iron Man 1, Reminiscing, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:54:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29165274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: When Peter told Neal that they had to go in early the next day for a big meeting, and that Neal was to be on his best behavior, Neal assumed he knew why. Ever since the press conference last week, Iron Man and superheroes were on everyone's lips.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 62





	Interrogation By Any Other Name

**Author's Note:**

> So I read [this story](https://archiveofourown.org/works/345696) where Pepper and Neal were siblings, and finished it going. "Huh. I don't really see it, but good story." And then like three days later my brain was like, "ok, but what if…"
> 
> Thanks brain.
> 
> Set immediately after IM1 and before/during S01E08: Hard Sell.

When Peter told Neal that they had to go in early the next day for a big meeting, and that Neal was to be on his best behavior, Neal assumed he knew why. Ever since the press conference last week, Iron Man and superheroes were on everyone's lips. Neal assumed that this was some kind of "here's what we do about Tony Stark's vigilante suit" and "here's what to do about other potential 'superheroes'" lecture from the higher ups.

In other words, important information for Peter and the rest, but pretty useless for Neal.

Still, that morning he wore one of his best suits, and his current favorite tie, and was promptly waiting for Peter on the step with an extra cup of June's coffee, despite the earlier hour. Peter didn't even appreciate this thoughtfulness with a 'thank you', but Neal was used to that.

Once they reached the office, Neal's suspicions were semi-confirmed: he was on cold-case duty at his desk, not a part of the meeting. Neal wasn't going to complain — cold cases were sometimes interesting, and he had no need to know how to go about properly arresting Tony Stark without setting off an international incident, like real agents did.

As it happened, Neal was in the stacks, hunting down a file he thought might link two cases, when the visiting brass came into the conference room and kicked off the meeting. Neal hadn't been following the time, so he was just mildly surprised to come back to his desk and notice the conference room door closed and blinds drawn. A glance up the steps showed that Peter and Hughes weren't in their offices, so he assumed the meeting had begun.

It didn't matter one way or the other to Neal, so he simply sat back at his desk — under Jones's watchful eye, because Peter didn't trust him not to somehow screw this up, apparently — and tried to follow the connections between the two cases.

The meeting was shorter than Neal predicted, and he glanced up when he heard the door open. For a moment he was blindsided, though he supposed he really should have expected to see the redhead who followed Hughes out of the room. He could have ducked under his desk, or held a file up to his face, or something else, but in the split second he decided that hiding the truth wasn't going to be nearly as fun as revealing it this way.

Smiling widely, Neal called out, "Hello, Pep."

"Neal!" Pepper also smiled brightly and made her way over to his desk to give him a hug. "How are you! I'm so sorry I didn't come see you once you got out—"

"No, I didn't mind: you were understandably busy. Tony was missing, and then he was crazy… and what's this I hear about you buying an insanely overpriced Jackson Pollock?"

Pepper laughed. "You want to come authenticate it for me?"

"I'd love to," Neal hitched up his pant leg to show the anklet, "but I think Malibu is a little outside my radius.

"What? I thought your sentence was up!" Pepper glanced from the anklet to the office. "Are you not here consulting?"

Neal shrugged, "In a way—"

"Ma'am, Neal Caffrey is a criminal," Peter said formally, seeming to have finally recovered from the shock of Neal and Pepper's greetings. Behind him, Neal saw that Cruz and some of the others were no better off. "He's on a work-release program with the FBI right now."

"You did something stupid," Pepper guessed, giving Neal that look.

Neal sighed, "I did. Maybe. Jury's still out."

Pepper raised one eyebrow. "Well, the metaphorical jury is still out," Neal amended. "The literal one gave me four more years."

"Oh Neal," Pepper sighed.

"Miss Potts, you mentioned an artwork," Peter was not to be deterred. "I should warn you that Caffrey is a forger — any artwork he gave you might not be real."

"Is that true Neal?" Pepper eyed him teasingly. "Was my birthday present a forgery?"

"I don't think it's technically possible to forge yourself," Neal mused.

"Well if anyone could do it, it would be you," Pepper joked. Suddenly her phone beeped. "Dang it, I've got another meeting." She fished a business card out of her purse and handed it to Neal. "Call me; we'll hang out before I leave New York." She smirked and added, "somewhere inside your radius."

"Yeah, bring Tony — if you're still speaking to him." Neal offered.

Pepper scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I'll consider that. Speaking of, have you seen Uncle Morgan?"

"I have, actually," Neal held up the card. "I'll be sure to bring him with me."

"Do that." Pepper gave Neal another hug and then a kiss on the cheek. "Oh it was so good to see you Neal! We'll talk more later!" Then, she quickly walked out the door.

Smirking, Neal slipped her card into his pocket, then sat back down at his desk. He knew Peter was still hovering, and that the entire office was probably watching, and he had no intention of making this easy on them.

Peter, predictably, was the first. "What was all that?" he asked.

"That was me greeting an old friend," Neal said innocently. "Not exactly a Sherlock-worthy deduction, Peter."

"You know Miss Potts?" Peter pressed.

"Pepper? Yeah, we go way back."

"You know Tony Stark?" that was Jones, sounding excited.

"Mm," Neal hummed. "Good taste in clothes, better taste in cars. Utterly allergic to responsibility. And he sucks at pool."

"You've played pool with _Tony Stark_?" asked one of the probies.

"No, I'm undefeated at pool against Tony Stark," Neal corrected.

"Can you get me his autograph?" asked another.

"Nope!"

"You mentioned an Uncle — are you and Miss Potts related?" Cruz asked.

"Not genetically," Neal replied. Let them assume what they wanted from that phrasing.

"Neal, my office," Peter said firmly.

Sighing, Neal got up and followed him there, doing his best to eavesdrop on the whispers that followed. Trust Peter to spoil his fun.

A moment after Neal sat in his usual chair, Hughes stomped in and closed the door. "What did you know about today's meeting?" he asked.

"Officially, just what the office was told yesterday," Neal replied honestly. "Unofficially I assumed your higher ups were giving you the 'how to carefully arrest Stark in his suit' talk."

"You didn't know that Miss Potts would be here?" Peter asked.

"Nope! She's usually more involved in the business and personal sides of his life. I thought today would involve your own bosses, maybe lawyers."

"This was about the business," Hughes said.

Neal's mind zipped through the possibilities. "If she was here on behalf of Stark Industries then I'm guessing this had nothing to do with Tony's Iron Man thing and was more about White Collar specifically," he thought aloud. "If she was just meeting with you two and not the whole FBI — embezzlement or something similar with the New York branch of SI?"

"Obadiah Stane," Hughes said.

"Tony's business partner," Neal promptly replied.

"It recently came out that he had several dealings under the table. Now the LA office is combing through the Stark Industries records for their location—"

"And you were brought in for the New York-based operations. Makes sense," Neal agreed.

"And _you_ didn't know this was coming?" Hughes eyed Neal sternly.

"No! I haven't spoken to Pepper in person since shortly after I was put in prison. We've exchanged emails, of course, but the last few months she's been pretty… busy." Freaked out, more likely, given what Neal knew about her crush on Tony, but that wasn't his place to say. Neal had meant to send her a note after seeing that Tony was found alive, but then Peter had arrested him again for the Le Joyau heist and he'd been slightly distracted.

"We don't have any record of a relationship between you and Pepper Potts, or Tony Stark," Peter said, looking up from his computer screen. Neal assumed he'd been checking that while Hughes grilled him.

"Peter, you don't have _any_ records of me before I turned eighteen, and only incomplete ones after that," he pointed out patiently.

"You're saying you knew Stark and Potts when you were a child?" Hughes sounded even more doubtful than when Neal said he didn't know Pepper was coming.

"Pepper, yes. Tony I met when I was twenty."

"And you're going to be seeing them now?" Peter asked.

"Maybe," Neal shrugged. "It shouldn't happen during work hours again."

"Neal, I need to know—"

"—if I'm consorting with _criminals_ ," Neal pointed out. "Which Pepper and Tony aren't. I'm allowed to have a private life."

"No, you're not," Peter snapped back.

Neal glanced at Hughes. "I'm not?" That is not what the consulting contract had said.

"You are," Hughes sighed. "Go back to work."

As Neal hit the door, Peter called back, "And no letting Stark hack your anklet!"

Neal never would have asked that of Tony, but he couldn't help but tweak Peter's tail. "Hnn… you think he could?" he asked brightly. "I hadn't thought of that!" As the door closed behind him, Neal heard Peter choke.

On his way back to his desk, Neal pulled out his phone and shot off a text to Moz. _Pepper's in town. We're invited to dinner some time._ He also pulled out Pepper's card and sent her a quick text so that she'd know his and Mozzie's current numbers.

The rest of the day was an exercise in Neal's self control: everyone stared at him even more than they had his first week, Peter was in a mood, and because of the early start, Neal had forgotten to bring his lunch. Normally he'd just go out to eat with Peter, but it apparently wasn't an option today. For the most part, Neal refrained from texting at his desk, but during the lunch hour and trips to the restroom he managed to keep up with Pepper and Mozzie well enough.

Finally the day ended, and Neal dodged Peter, taking a cab back home, where he found Moz already waiting for him.

"Well you look worse than usual," he greeted Neal.

"Long day." Neal said shortly. Part of him didn't even want to go out tonight, but it would probably be just as bad tomorrow, and he didn't want to miss seeing Pepper.

As Neal started to take his coat off, he took a better look at Mozzie. "You're looking unusually dapper."

"We're going to Per Se," Mozzie informed him, naming the most expensive restaurant within his radius — one of the most expensive in the city, period.

"Really?" While Pepper did enjoy the finer things as much as them, their last few reunions had been of the pizza and bare feet variety.

"She's sending a car," Mozzie shrugged.

"Good thing I'm already wearing my best suit," Neal decided, before going in search of some Tylenol to beat back his headache.

oOo

The car arrived five minutes later, and they arrived at Per Se just before six. To Neal's surprise, when Mozzie gave Pepper's name, they were escorted not to a table, but to the West Room. It was full of businessmen and their dates, but Pepper quickly spied them. She was in a lovely silver and cream gown and Neal could see the relief in her eyes as she greeted them.

"Neal, Uncle Morgan! You made it!" she said happily.

"This is quite the shindig," Neal noted.

Pepper blushed slightly. "Shareholder's dinner. Fortunately, Tony's known for moving things around at the last minute, so I was able to scoot it inside your radius."

"Misappropriating company resources? Pepper I'm so proud of you," Neal teased.

"Yes, well, tonight you're saving me from having to tell everyone over and over that Tony being Iron Man won't hurt the company, and tomorrow I'll pay you back with pizza and wine at your place."

Neal smiled brightly. "It's a deal."

"Is Tony here?" Mozzie asked, looking around curiously. They'd only met in passing before, but Neal knew Moz couldn't give up a chance to ask Stark about superhero conspiracy theories.

"He's supposed to be," Pepper said tightly.

"We won't hold our breath, then," Neal guessed.

Pepper nodded gratefully. "Look, I have to greet Mister Tanaka now, but if anyone corners me for more than five minutes…"

"I'll ride to your rescue," Neal promised.

"You're my hero!" Pepper cheered before patting his shoulder and heading towards the newest arrivals.

Neal made a beeline for the bar to get something to drink, but he kept his eye on Pepper the whole time. They'd done something similar before, though one time it was Tony that Neal was watching for, to ensure he didn't escape. In some ways, it was no different than infiltrating a party as a thief: keeping your eye on the target, or security, or a chance to take the side door without a single person noticing. Neal had long ago perfected the art of tracking someone or something through a crowd.

When the first course was served, Neal made a point of grabbing Pepper's elbow and escorting her to a place between himself and Mozzie, where they could take turns dominating the conversation with her and distracting the people on either side of them.

Finally, the night ended, and Neal and Mozzie hung back as Pepper graciously handled all of the farewells. Tony had never shown up, but during the desert course Pepper confessed that that was probably for the best, barring any emergency texts from his friend Rhody. Mozzie — in his guise as Morgan Mozowski — had even made a friend with one of the Board members, who apparently appreciated historical war trivia as much as he did.

"Well I'd call this a success," Neal said as Pepper sank down onto the barstool next to him. "Uncle Morgan even made a friend, and I don't think you had to talk to Maria Oppenhauser for more than three minutes total."

Pepper snorted and accepted the drink he had ready for her. "Yes, you distracted her impressively with your story about the Danish princess and the serving tray," she agreed. "Thank you."

"So, tomorrow night you're free?" he checked.

"Barring any life-threatening emergencies, yup," Pepper agreed.

"Good. Bring De Fara's? It's a little beyond my radius and I've missed it," Neal admitted.

Pepper laughed. "Alright, since I owe you for tonight. I'll be there as soon as I'm off work. And then you can explain this to me," she gently prodded the anklet with her toe.

"It's a date," Neal agreed cheerfully. "Now what do you say, let's get out of here?"

"God, yes," Pepper sighed. "C'mon, I'll drop you off."

oOo

"So, Per Se?" Peter asked as soon as Neal got into the car.

"It's within my radius," Neal pointed out. If Peter wanted to treat this like an interrogation, he was going to have to work for it.

"It is. It's also a little pricey, isn't it?"

"Only $350 a person," Neal said nonchalantly.

"I didn't think the FBI paid you that well," Peter frowned.

"The FBI doesn't pay me at all," Neal pointed out. When he'd asked early on he'd been informed snidely that being out of prison was his payment, so he was having to burn through his pre-arrest assets to buy groceries and things now.

"I take it you were someone's guest, then?" Peter asked cagily.

Neal sighed. "If you want to know whether I was hanging out with Pepper, you could just ask," he pointed out. "Of course, since you heard us arranging it yesterday, you'd already know that's what I was doing." He was going to have another headache before lunch at this rate.

"Okay, did you hang out with _Pepper_ last night?" Peter asked.

"I did, actually," Neal replied.

"She must be a really good friend, to treat you to some place as expensive as Per Se."

"She is, but it was also a company function, so I doubt she was paying out of her own pocket," Neal explained.

"You were her date?" Peter's eyes were wide.

"No, ew. She's my sister."

"Miss Potts is an only child," Peter pointed out.

"Genetically, that's true," Neal agreed.

"So what, you were adopted?" Peter scoffed.

Neal rolled his eyes but didn't answer. Peter seemed bound and determined to make this a fight, and Neal didn't feel like playing that game.

"Wait, _were_ you actually adopted?" Peter sounded less hostile and more surprised.

"Not legally, though I think there was some kind of paperwork," Neal shrugged. "But we grew up together, and I basically lived at her house from around twelve onwards."

"What about your own—"

"If you're going to interrogate me I'd rather take a cab," Neal cut him off. There was no way he was telling Peter any more about his childhood than was absolutely necessary.

"I need to know—"

"No, Peter, you don't." Neal said firmly. "The day that you spend an hour interrogating Cruz about her childhood friends and her relationship with her parents then you can come after me. I don't _have_ to share my past with you, and despite being a prisoner I'm not required to answer questions about my family or childhood."

That shut Peter up for the moment, and Neal let his forehead rest against the cool car window for the rest of the drive.

oOo

By lunch, Neal was wondering if maybe he wouldn't have been better off hiding his face yesterday until Pepper left the office. Not that he wasn't looking forward to seeing her again tonight, but the scrutiny was worse than his first week.

He had remembered his lunch this time, at least, so when Peter stomped up to his desk, Neal was quick to decline. "I've got food, Peter."

Peter sighed. "Just come with me, Neal."

"I'm not going to answer any of your questions," Neal insisted.

"That's fine," Peter nodded. "Just come to lunch."

"Fine." Neal used the opportunity to escape the office. He was pretty certain that Peter was going to interrogate him anyways, but at least no one else would be around to see it.

When they got to the small bistro and found Elizabeth saving them a table on the terrace, Neal realized that he'd been played. "Peter? Calling in your wife to do your interrogations for you? I'm surprised at you," Neal taunted.

"No interrogations here," El said, getting up to give Neal a quick hug and Peter a kiss on the cheek. "Just a nice lunch to catch up: I haven't seen you in a week."

"I wasn't interrogating you either," Peter protested as he took his seat.

Neal just gave him the look. "An interrogation by any other name..."

"Oh honey, you were," El told him. "You're terrible at asking questions without turning off your investigator attitude."

El must have warned the server that they were on the clock, because she gave them only a minute to look at the menu before coming over to take their orders.

Once that was taken care of, El casually asked, "It must have been surprising to see your friend at the FBI yesterday; Peter said you haven't seen her since you got out of prison?"

Neal snorted. It was still an interrogation, as he suspected, but El was much better at covering that fact than Peter. "Yes, as I told Peter, I wasn't expecting her. She's been pretty busy the last few months, and mostly based in LA right now."

"It's got to be hard, not being able to see your friends, unless they come to you," El said sympathetically. "I'm glad you've got Mozzie here in town, at least."

"Mmhm," Neal agreed.

"And if she's going to be working with the team on a case, you'll see her more often, right?"

"Possibly," Neal allowed. "I'm not sure if she'll actually have the time to come into the office — Tony keeps her pretty busy. It's more likely that we'll just be dealing with accountants, lawyers, that kind of thing."

"Oh, I guess that's true." El took a sip of her drink. "You know, I saw her at an event once. We exchanged maybe ten words, but I was impressed. She just seemed so calm and collected, even when things weren't going perfectly."

Neal snorted. "Oh, don't let her fool you. She can smile cheerfully and make small talk while putting a heel through your shoe. She's got a hell of a poker face."

"Really?" El asked. "You play poker with her?"

"Her dad taught us both when we were kids," Neal admitted. "Her mom was pissed, because she stopped being able to tell when we were lying."

"So you two were poker sharks from a young age, huh?" El asked.

Neal knew that Peter was probably cataloging everything he said, but damned if El didn't make it easy to talk to her. And _want_ to share. "Your poker face isn't too bad either," he teased. "Especially when you use it on Peter's behalf."

El wrinkled her nose as Peter coughed into his water glass. "Busted," she admitted. "But no, I'm genuinely curious. Everyone needs friends, and it must be hard for you to be separated from yours by prison and then the anklet. I just want you to be happy."

"Not too happy," Peter grumbled.

Neal got the impression that El stomped on his foot beneath the table. "You'd rather he be so miserable he cuts the anklet and runs?" she asked pointedly.

"Oh, Pepper will love you," Neal said with a smirk. "And no, I was the card shark. She was the pool shark."

"Oh, Peter mentioned that!" El said cheerfully as their food arrived. "You told the office that you beat Tony Stark at pool?"

"He's a genius, and could probably win purely on math and angles, but he's too impatient," Neal explained. "Playing pool is a lot like playing chess in that respect: you've got to be thinking three moves ahead. Tony _can_ do that, but doesn't tend to bother."

"Like him announcing he was Iron Man on TV last week," El nodded.

"Exactly."

"So you and Pepper snookered him at pool?"

Neal laughed. "We did. I played him first, and beat him, then I suggested a game against her. He rode in to her rescue and said that she could play against him instead of me, at which point I bet that after five minutes alone with me she could beat him. He had this idea, for some reason, of her as being so good and innocent, and when I asked her to play a game, she did the ingenue, 'oh I don't know, it looks hard' routine."

"Was this when he first met her?" El asked, gleefully.

"Nope! She'd been his assistant for a year at that point. He had just, you know, pigeonholed her as the one who always made him keep his schedule and never let him have fun. So the idea that she would enjoy playing pool, or be devious enough to con him, or would have a close connection to someone else outside of work with whom she could partner…"

"I'm sure he got quite a shock!"

"Mmm, and he was a decent sport about it too," Neal added. "It definitely changed his view of her, at least."

"Ooh?" El asked in that tone that said she knew exactly what he was implying. "So that's how it is?"

Neal chuckled, "I'm not sure yet. I've been out of the loop for four years, and we didn't have much time to ourselves last night. But I'll be caught up on all the gossip soon." Neal made a quick decision. He hadn't been lying earlier when he said that Pepper would like El, and as an event planner, El might even be able to help Pepper out in the future. "Tonight's spoken for, but if she's in town long enough, would you like to meet her?" Neal offered.

"Really?" El almost dropped her fork.

"Like I said, I'm sure you'd get along. And if she doesn't already have someone lined up to plan the Children's Gala, I might give you a recommendation."

"Oh Neal, I'd be happy just to meet your friend," El blushed.

"I'm sure," And funnily, the fact that she was telling the truth was the reason Neal had made the second offer. By the end of the meal, Neal had almost forgotten that Peter was there, mentally cataloging every word he said.

Almost, but not quite.

So, though he told El about learning to shoot pool as teenagers fresh out of high school, he didn't tell her that they were in New York at the time, both doing the struggling model thing while putting themselves through business and art classes, respectively. And while he told her about some of their exploits sharking those who thought they could take advantage of their youth, he didn't mention Morgan Mozowitz, the owner of the pool hall who took them under his wing. And though he told her about racing Tony's fast cars through the desert with the wind in their hair, he didn't mention the time he snuck through Tony's security in Malibu, just to see if he could.

Because as much as he liked El, and as sincere as he was about her befriending Pepper, Neal never lost sight of the fact that this was still an interrogation. A friendly one, but an interrogation nonetheless. And what Peter didn't know couldn't come back to hurt Neal or his family.

oOo

Pepper stayed in town for two weeks, and Neal was able to hang out with her a handful of times. The promised lunch with El did happen, and though the Children's Gala was already in motion, next season's Environmentalism Dinner wasn't, and Pepper was delighted to hire El for it.

After the Avery sting went south, Pepper was gratifyingly angry on Neal's behalf that Peter had almost let him die. Neal had been willing to let his different lives cross long enough for Pepper to tell Peter what she thought about the FBI's callous attitude towards his safety, and to publicly hand Neal the business card for a very expensive lawyer 'just in case.'

The day after she returned to California, Neal even received a text from Tony.

_Did you really break out of a Supermax prison in just one month?_

_Well I had slightly longer than that to case the joint, but yes,_ Neal replied.

_That's it, you're hired. You're doing all of my security testing from now on._ Tony decided.

Neal assumed that Pepper would explain about his radius and that would be the end of that. Still, it was nice of Tony to offer.

oOo

Three months later, Neal was shocked to receive the double finger point calling himself and Peter to Hughes's office. He couldn't figure out what he had done, until a somewhat unsettled Hughes announced, "I just got off the phone with the _Director_ of the FBI, telling me in no uncertain terms to allow another office to borrow Caffrey. Burke, you'll be allowed to go with him, but his attendance is non-negotiable."

"What office?" Peter asked apprehensively.

Hughes grimaced and said, "LA. Specifically, Malibu."

Neal's own apprehension vanished as the location clicked. It looked like he'd be seeing Pepper again sooner than he'd expected, and doing Tony's security testing after all.


End file.
